114.The Second (1)
I dug the ground with magic without summoning Ghur. I couldn’t move the ground quietly and neatly like the magic he used, but I could split the ground and dig.
Moreover, the object wasn’t buried very deeply. After sending Mana under the ground, it was mined where the reaction came.
“Here’s another one.”
I could see a black surface beneath the removed dirt, so I pulled it out of the way.
A total of twelve objects were dug up. However, most of them weren’t intact, and there were traces of cracks, fractures, or burns. There were old relics that couldn’t be estimated how long they had been buried like the traces of Dragon.
Still, there was only one thing that remained intact.
“Oh, this is fine.”
I lifted it with both hands and then blew the wind to shake off the dust.
“It’s not as heavy as I thought it would be, huh?”
The top side was wide and flat, but it got narrower as it went down and then fell into sharp edges, like a beast’s claw. It was quite large but very thin and light. My face was reflected blue on the glossy black surface.
“It was buried on these fine scales. The mental body.”
[I think so.]
I came to the nest to get my hands on that.
While emptying the nest, the ascetics didn’t touch that place. That area was a kind of graveyard, the land where the first generation of ascetics who served the Dragon was buried a long time ago.
I said while touching my chest, “The Truth-Seeker of Silver Forest had made this guy by pulling out tentacles from its body.”
The pile of tentacles, which had been predated after a while, seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep. It didn’t move around my heart.
“The Dragon must’ve made an alter ego from the scales.”
In Hessler’s memory crystal, the Dragon called that place ‘garbage dump.’ Those were tombs of ascetics who swept the Earth long before Hessler was born when the Truth-Seeker first stepped into that world.
The first way the Dragon chose to make ascetics was to use pieces of his own body. As time passed, that old method was abandoned, and all the first generation of ascetics were buried in the ground.
Hessler speculated that the Truth-Seeker’s power continued to be consumed during physical activities such as walking and fighting. Compared to those who signed the contract of authority, the strength was also weak, so there was no reason for Dragon to use them anymore.
“The scales were used as the cores to make the body of ascetics.”
[After being buried in the ground, the body gets rotten and becomes dirt, and only a fraction of the scales were left.]
I nodded. The scales I dug were just over ten. The buried warrior was not only that much, but most of the scales were rotted and decayed, and only these many remained.
I looked around, and there was an endlessly stretched rock sphere. I thought that each one was a kind of mark. If that was true, the Dragon probably had made hundreds of warriors and buried them in that land.
Still, there was one hypothesis that I could think of.
“Is it impossible for the Truth-Seeker to create an alter ego and then absorb it back into the body?”
The Silver Forest’s Truth-Seeker also seemed to receive something from a pile of tentacles that had eaten the Heart Fish, but it didn’t completely reunite the body. If the Dragon also didn’t need them, there would have been a way to absorb these scales again. Instead, he buried them in the ground.
“And there seems to be some limitations or reasons to be reluctant to kill his alter egos. Or was there a reason to put them in a deep sleep for some time?”
The Dragon didn’t kill the alter egos and buried them alive in the ground. I don’t know why he didn’t kill them on purpose.
The first ascetics were buried in the ground, slowly decaying and disappearing. Later their spirit began to disintegrate, and it seemed that they became a bizarre mental body fused with a single soul as a medium. In that condition, the scales were intact.
I looked around at what I held in my hand and said, “Because it’s a Dragon scale, I thought it was something special, but it’s nothing, right? I can’t even feel a handful of Mana.”
[It’s probably because it’s a dead shell.]
Those modern ascetics had left that cemetery since they were useless trash and that the Truth-Seeker instructed the place to be left untouched before his death. Most of the ascetics who signed the contract of authority were incapable of violating the Dragon’s order.
I could guess why the Dragon gave such an order. Perhaps the Dragon guessed that such a mental body was formed, and he wanted to avoid the situation where the current ascetics bumped into it.
Not only did I not have to follow the Dragon’s order, but I could also use that scale, which was just a keratin exfoliation useless to the ascetics.
[We got both with this—the Dragon’s body and his true name.]
“Yeah.”
I nodded.
When I was young, Parvache taught me the chase magic, but we failed to find Truth-Seeker’s traces. After a long time and no progress, we eventually gave up on that method.
But things were different now. Currently, I had a clue in my hand to chase the Truth-Seeker. I got the Dragon scales and discovered what his true name was from Hessler and Alice’s memories. Those two clues would guide me.
Until then, it was like finding a needle in the sand with bare hands, but at that moment, it was like holding something similar to a magnet.
A dragon who abandoned his own body and died, but his soul didn’t join the ring of reincarnation as mortals did, nor was it called for a divine being like the transcendent.
A spell that would lead me to the place where the Dragon’s soul awaited the resurrection. I carefully packed the Dragon scales, which would be the medium of magic, and called Ghur to go outside.
***
“Hey, Sir!”
A Camry stopped in front of me.
It was a straight road with nothing so that he would have seen me from a distance. I said a sentence that asked him to come back to the place he dropped me off earlier, excluding all proper nouns. It was the surroundings’ geographical characteristics that he could come to that place after hearing those words. Coming in the direction of the barricade, he had no choice but to meet me when he reached the control line.
An Indian driver lowered the window and waved at me, and I put myself in the back seat.
“Yes, I knew you’d call me back. There aren’t really any taxis around here.”
I nodded quietly. There was no traffic around, and there was no need to spend much Mana and stamina by flying that distance. I saw the business card I had received, made a phone call, and reunited with the driver who first took me there.
The driver asked as he started his car.
“What have you been doing in this desert for hours?”
“… I picked up some trash.”
“What?”
He looked at me through the rearview mirror as if he doesn’t understand. I shrugged my shoulders.
“Something like environmental protection activities?”
I didn’t respond. I was tired, so I leaned over and buried the back of my head in the seat.
“I thought you’re a businessman because you were heading towards the Free Zone.”
The driver glanced at my face and kept talking to me. I turned back in the form of a middle-aged man that I used when taking the taxi for the first time. Until the immigration and hotel check-in, I went around with my original face reflected on my ID, but I had changed my face just before I got a taxi.
“But when I saw that you asked to go over the barricade without a permit, you didn’t seem to have any knowledge there.”
His gaze lingered over my face for a long time. He kept talking to me in a curious voice, but I didn’t want to reply.
Well, he kept talking to me on the way from downtown to the nest, perhaps because of his personality. When I didn’t answer questions about my personal detail, such as my job, he changed his direction and began to talk about his details. As a result, I had to listen to the hardships of his life that I didn’t want to know.
Well, of course, I almost heard it.
I thought the conversation would end if I kept silent, but he seldom stopped speaking. Instead of picking me up more that time, he suddenly asked an unexpected question.
“Come to think of it, didn’t you have time to watch the news on your smartphone while picking up trash?”
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“Hmm?”
“In the meantime, the news has gone crazy. It looks like another Channel was created.”
It wasn’t uncommon. Since that day in May of last year, when more than 200 Channels were first created, sparse new channels had emerged.
According to the Truth-Seeker of Silver Forest, at the moment last year when the Dragon was presumed to be dead. All Truth-Seekers who had Channels that had only grown into adults and hadn’t yet connected the Channels to the Earth. That number is about 200.
As their Seed Channel became an adult, all Truth-Seekers who meet the conditions broke through the Channel on Earth. There was no Dragon to defend, so if they hit that dimension, the success rate was 100%. For the time being, the number seemed to be a little over 350.
No matter how much you thought about it, it was fortunate that the Earth hadn’t been destroyed so far.
I answered slowly since I felt sleepy little by little.
“It’s not even big news to have another Channel in the world these days.”
“No, it’s different this time. There were two new Channels in a few hours.”
“Is that so?”
It would be just a coincidence.
“By the way, one of the two was opened in New York. So, my head hurts now. Although nothing has come out of the Channel yet.”
“Well? What does the Channel open in New York have to do with you?”
The driver then looked back as if it was absurd and said, “Hey, is your memory so bad? I told you when I was driving. My son is going to college in New York starting next year!”
Did he talk about that? I yawned. He grumbled, turning his head forward again.
“I’m worried. After dropping you off, I’ll have to go home and Skype him. It must be early in the morning over there. His home now is far from New York… but I don’t know how things are going.”
Ah. Come to think of it, I kind of remembered. Did he say that his son lived at his sister’s house in United Stated and attended the school there?
“What if the city is blocked because of the Channel? If so, he can’t go to school even after entering college, right? If the entire city is banned like Cairo or any other South American country…”
He poured out his words for a long time, and I responded profoundly.
“There are many countries where nothing comes out even when the Channel is open.”
“Yes, that’s true, but…”
He then sighed deeply.
“I don’t know what to do if he can’t get admission. There are so many unprecedented incidents since the creation of the Channel. What should new students do if the university that they passed the exam burns up the entire building or the city where the campus is located becomes an off-limits zone?”
It was a troublesome problem to hear, but I didn’t want to be bothered thinking about alternatives with him.
“It hasn’t happened in that long time, and why is that damn Channel-whatsoever newly opened in New York now?”
As he talked, the driver’s voice grew louder to see if his emotions were intensified.
Yes, that was what I meant, Mister. Why did that mess happen while I was living in that world? Why would he do that to me? The Dragon.
“It’s all because of my son that I come all the way to Dubai and drive a taxi. He’s very smart. I’m going to graduate from college in the U.S. and get a good job. However, the admission might be canceled because of that Channel, so he has to consider another school… it’s really complicated.”
I yawned a few more times and then stretched. I was transformed, but I didn’t want to fall asleep defenselessly in front of a stranger. I answered half-heartedly while chasing my sleep.
“You said he was smart. Don’t you think there’s a place to go if that school doesn’t work?”
“Yes, that’s right!”
His face glowed again.
“Rakesh is something. He will be a successful person. He’s the first person in the family to go to school in the United States. It’s a big deal.”
He shared excitedly.
“It was unimaginable a few generations ago. Did you hear it before? My great-grandfather was a tenant farmer of colonial English, and my grandfather was a tenant farmer of the landowner who inherited it. They both worked so hard that they could skin their hands, but they didn’t get any money.”
I couldn’t remember at all. Did he talk about that? By the way… I’m so sleepy.
“My father hated that fate, so he ran away to Chennai. And he worked in a leather factory. Being overworked is the same, but I made enough money to make a living. More importantly, I went to school in that city. So, I could learn English. Life has definitely improved in my father’s generation, compared to the previous generation, right?”
I nodded quietly.
“Also, I could find a job in Dubai because I could speak English. Do you know what the average salary of people working in Chennai is? It’s 300 USD. The salary is $300. That’s ridiculous money!”
“The income you earn here is much better, right?”
“Of course! The taxi fare you pay for a round trip today is going to be about 600 dirhams ($160)!”
He laughed as he said so.
“Of course, the money doesn’t come in my pocket as it is, but the units of money that are rolling are different.”
A pleasant voice continued.
“Well, my son? That guy will live a much better life than me. He’s been living in my older sister’s house in the United States since middle school. Of course, I send him the money for monthly living expenses. He’s a little anxious about the Channel, but he’s going to enter college somehow. He’s smart. My son doesn’t have to suffer from a low salary in Chennai, and he doesn’t have to drive every day without holidays in Dubai. He will live leisurely and rich in the United States.”
It was a rhythm and accent that seemed to be humming a song.
“What’s next? Our son’s son, and that son… will get better and better as we go through generations in this way because we’ve always been like that. Perhaps a distant descendant, at this rate, the grandson of my grandson, will make our family rich?”
There was strange energy mixed with his voice. He sincerely believed and didn’t seem to have any doubts. His descendants would continue to prosper and continue through generations, and each would find happiness better than the previous generation.
Although as I listened to his endless words, I had to come up with an idea.
If one generation was 30 years… Probably the great-grandchild of that driver could succeed, but then what?
I thought quietly as I gaze at the head of the driver, who happily continued his words. In the future, the time given to Earth was about 200 years. Until then, if humanity couldn’t find a dimension to which they could migrate, then that man’s hope wouldn’t come true.
Whether life got better or not, regardless of the possibility, a new life wouldn’t be born in the first place, but at least that guy wouldn’t be sad about it. When that time would come, he would be dead, and his ego would be gone.
I didn’t think it caused direct harm to all the ordinary people who lived and breathed in that world at that moment.
At least about their characters and selves that existed now.
“Oh, come to think of it…”
There was a question that I couldn’t ask because the driver kept talking.
“You said there were two Channels? Where is one other than New York?”
“Ah, about that.”
The driver tilted his head a little as if he couldn’t think of it.
“I heard it today, but I forgot it again. I’m always confused. You might know it well.”
He then brought up something I didn’t expect.
“Other than the U.S., the country where the Channel was opened is Korea.”
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… What?
I was wide awake. I tried to ask back with a stiff look, but the driver scratched his chin and asked me.
“By the way, this is always confusing. Hmm. Which is South Korea or North Korea? The one… with the famous dictator who continues to rule from generation to generation?”